Video or still? You needn't choose anymore

(continued from previous page)

drop far fewer frames and take several high-resolution shots per second.

High-definition video, a feature available now in only a few expensive consumer cameras, will also become mainstream, said Gary Baum, senior vice president of marketing at NuCore Technology, which makes the image processor inside the JVC Everio.

"High-definition video is going to start to come down to the $599 price point," Baum said. "You are going to see a ton of stuff in early 2006, late 2005."

Still cameras sporting resolutions in the range of 8 or more megapixels will also shoot DVD-quality video, Baum added.

"High-definition video is going to start to come down to the $599 price point."

--Gary Baum, senior vice president, NuCore

To date, physical and technical limitations have made it difficult to combine a good video camera and a good still camera in the same body.

The imager--the chip that captures light from the outside world and turns it into electrical signals--is actually quite large on a digital still camera, measuring about a half to two-thirds of an inch wide, Sony's Weir said. The large size permits chip designers to cram numerous pixels onto it. The imagers on a video camera are much smaller.

But what happens when you combine the imager with a lens? The larger imager requires a larger lens, a situation that zoom functions exaggerate. A 10x zoom lens on a digital video camera (with its smaller imager) is still relatively small. Conversely, a digital still camera with a 10x lens and a larger imager would need to bulk up.

"Once you get past a 3x zoom, you have a lens of considerable size," Weir said.

Function is another issue. "Imagers for multi-megapixel still cameras are optimized for megapixels. They aren't trying to capture action at 30 to 60 frames per second," he added. "Typically, they are optimized for speed or resolution, but not both."

Increased processing power, however, is changing the picture. Better chips now allow some cameras to snap two to three pictures a second in a continuous shooting mode. (In one test of a Kyocera camera, a reviewer took 2,800 shots in 14 minutes of continuous shooting.) Better processing power enables camera makers to switch rapidly from video to still functions and vice versa.

Imagers are also improving. Now digital video cameras mostly come with an imager that takes stills with a resolution of 2 or fewer megapixels. In two to three years, 5 megapixels will be more the norm. Hence, video cameras will, by default, function like good still cameras.

The improvements come at a time when the digital camera is prospering, and staring into a dicey future. Units of digital still cameras will grow from 62 million in 2004 to 74 million this year--a 19 percent increase, according to iSuppli analyst Shyam Nagrani. Revenue, however, will stay roughly flat, at $15 billion, and then drop in 2006.

Digital video cameras, meanwhile, are puttering along. Units hit 14.4 million last year and are growing at 3 percent to 4 percent annually.

"How often do you want to watch those tapes? If it is your daughter taking her first steps, you will watch it. If it is a family picnic, you won't," Nagrani said. "And what are the odds that you will have a camera when your daughter takes her first steps?"

[Donoho]

Optio MX

Another option for consideration is the Option MX which does still as well as video with 10x Optical And 10 Digital zoom. The physical design probably isn't for the masses but overall is a good camera that takes an SD card I swap between it, my laptop, and my Treo.